Hit Man (1972 film)

Hit Man is a 1972 American crime film directed by George Armitage and starring Bernie Casey, Pam Grier and Lisa Moore. It is a blaxploitation-themed adaptation of Ted Lewis' 1970 novel Jack's Return Home, more famously adapted as Get Carter (1971), with the action relocated from England to the United States.

Plot
Tyrone Tackett, a former police officer, returns to Los Angeles to investigate the suspicious death of his brother, Cornell. Cornell's girlfriend, prostitute Irvelle Way, denies knowledge about Cornell's death, but Tyrone insists she attend the funeral for further questioning. At Cornell's house, Tyrone notices he is being followed by two men, Baby Huey and Leon. He finds Cornell's shotgun but not his teenage daughter, Rochelle. At the funeral, it is revealed Cornell died from drowning after driving off the road while drunk. Rochelle refuses Tyrone's offer to live with him. Irvelle’s presence at the funeral sparks animosity in Rochelle, prompting Tyrone to threaten Irvelle for the truth.

Tyrone, joined by Cornell’s business partner Sherwood Epps, revisits Cornell's home. They drink heavily, and Sherwood offers Tyrone a car if he helps repossess it. At the car lot, Tyrone calls his girlfriend, Nita Biggs, and speaks to her erotically, unsettling Sherwood's customers. Tyrone later rents a motel room from manager Laural Garfoot. The following day, he examines the scene where Cornell’s car went off the road and confronts Huey by shooting his car tire.

Tyrone attends a dogfight to find local mobsters and encounters Shag Merriweather, a driver for mobster Nano Zito. Tyrone commandeers Shag's car and gains access to Zito's mansion. Zito invites Tyrone to watch a handball game, which Tyrone wins, leading to a confrontation with Shag. Tyrone seeks to connect with Rochelle, but she rejects him. At the motel, Tyrone has a sexual encounter with Laural, which is interrupted by Sherwood, warning that Huey, Leon, and another thug are looking for Tyrone. Tyrone captures Huey, who reveals Theotis Oliver, a pornographic theater owner, as the person behind the harassment.

Tyrone visits Oliver, finding him disciplining his teenage daughter. Oliver denies knowledge of Tyrone. Back at the motel, Tyrone finds it ransacked. He and Laural are again interrupted by Leon and a thug, who warn Tyrone to leave town. Tyrone retaliates, forcing them to flee. Sherwood, found beaten but with a young girl, leads Tyrone to Africa America, a wildlife park, to find an old friend, Julius Swift. Unable to locate Swift, Tyrone meets Irvelle, who suggests Cornell's death was a suicide following their breakup.

Gozelda, an aspiring porn actress, rescues Tyrone from another attack and takes him to Oliver's new theater. Oliver offers Tyrone money to kill Zito, claiming Zito killed Cornell. Tyrone refuses. Gozelda takes Tyrone to a porn film featuring Rochelle, leading Tyrone to realize Cornell was killed seeking retribution. Tyrone finds Rochelle dead at her home and learns from Swift that Shag forced Cornell to drink, then drove him into the sea. Tyrone kills Swift and hangs Oliver in his theater after Oliver admits to manipulating Cornell.

Tyrone arranges with Zito to leave town in exchange for Shag. Zito’s corrupt policeman attempts to set Tyrone up, but Oliver's thugs kill Zito. Tyrone confronts and kills Shag, then scatters Cornell’s ashes in the sea. A policeman, realizing Zito's death, spares Tyrone, who returns to his old life.

Cast

 * Bernie Casey as Tyrone Tackett
 * Pam Grier as Gozelda
 * Lisa Moore as Laural Garfoot
 * Bhetty Waldron as Irvelle Way
 * Sam Laws as Sherwood Epps
 * Candy All as Rochelle Tackett
 * Don Diamond as Nano Zito
 * Edmund Cambridge as Theotis Oliver
 * Bob Harris as Shag Merriweather
 * Rudy Challenger as Julius Swift
 * Tracy Ann-King as Nita Biggs
 * Christopher Joy as Leon
 * Roger E. Mosley as Baby Huey
 * John Lupton as Commercial Director
 * Paul Gleason as Cop (uncredited)

Production
George Armitage says he never saw Get Carter before making the film, claiming that producer Gene Corman gave him a copy of the script with no title and said that MGM owned it. Armitage rewrote it to be set in the African American community, and only then did his agent tell him it was Get Carter. Armitage:

"I didn't feel at the time that a white director should be directing it. So I met with Bernie Casey, the film's star, who wanted to direct it, and campaigned for him with Gene, and he said: 'I don't want to take a chance on someone who hasn't directed.' So he wasn't going to make the picture, and at that point there was a lot of crew and cast involved, and they were friends, so I said: 'Okay, I'll do it.' There was a great deal of improvisation by the actors, who were bringing me dialogue from the African-American community, and it really worked. Growing up in a racially mixed neighborhood, like I did in Baldwin Hills, I knew a little bit about the culture, but the actors brought so much in terms of dialogue and honesty ... The Colonial Motel up on Sunset worked beautifully for us, and we also shot at a funeral home in southwest L.A., we shot all over there, with a crazy police escort holding traffic on every location. And between locations I'd get in a squad car with these crazy cops and drive 150 mph to the next location, I thought: 'God, Roger would be so thrilled with that, that's the way to travel.' And I'm so glad we were able to shoot in the Watts Towers, right down there at 103rd."

Hit Man marked the second time Corman had produced a blaxploitation film for Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer (MGM) that was based on a novel which had previously been adapted for one of the company's films, following Cool Breeze, an adaptation of W. R. Burnett's novel The Asphalt Jungle, which had previously inspired the film of the same name. Both of Corman's productions shared several cast and crew members, including Pam Grier, Rudy Challenger and Sam Laws. The film follows details from Lewis' novel more closely than Get Carter, and does not end with the protagonist's death.

Reception
Hit Man earned an estimated $1.19 million in North American rentals in 1973. According to the January 1973 edition of Variety, the film was condemned by the National Legion of Decency, which stated that its "dizzying spectacle of raw sex and supergraphic violence would horrify the Marquis de Sade".